RANT: My Argosy Studio Desk

[James Steele]

Okay... forgive me, but on the occasion of me wiring up a patchbay to my outboard gear, I need to flame away...

I hope I never meet the guy who designed my Argosy desk in a dark alley someday. It won't go well. I remember buying this thing used... got a killer deal and boy oh boy did it make my home studio look pro. The only problem is these damned things have two 8u slanted racks built in... one left and one right and VERY POOR ACCESS TO THE BACK OF THE GEAR!!

I can't begin to tell you how many hours, when I have decided to reconfigure the studio, I've had to lay on my back with flashlight in my mouth, or desk lamp shoved in the under desk shelf, reaching in with a small mirror to see the connections, then having to slide my body so my shoulder is near the rack and reach in and connect things by feel. I have cursed more in a few hours than the entire Sixth Fleet in a week.

Seriously... right now I'm having to pull everything out and then methodically make cables and put things in one at a time so that I have any hope that I won't have to be lying on the floor, getting pains in my back, reaching around behind the stuff feeling for input jacks, etc.... Looking in manuals to see where the various jacks on the rear of gear are so I can find them by "feel."

I've decided to move my power distribution from the bottom slot to the top slot. Patch bay needs to go at the bottom since it's shallow so I can actually see the connections from underneath when it's installed. Going to actually lay the patchbay unit on the desk right in front of the rack where it will go so I have extra slack on the cables. That way I can pull the patchbay out of the rack without hearing the sound of dozens of TRS jacks pulling out of the back of the patchbay and hitting the wood shelf inside. And yeah... label everything. That's some of the reason I ditched my Behringer patchbay for the Samsung because the normal/half-normal/thru switches are on the FRONT of the unit.

Okay... sorry... rant over. Yeah... cool looking studio desks and furniture are great, but when they are designed with no access panels or easy way to get to the rear of mounted gear when the rack is full... I don't know if it's worth it. When I get this all done, yeah... it will look cool. But then... if there's a bad cable... you'll hear me cursing again!

[HCMarkus]

The back of ANY rack is an ugly thing, James.

[James Steele]

The back of ANY rack is an ugly thing, James.

Haha. Indeed! And once you set it up you shouldn’t have to go back there again. Its all part of the pain of my studio modernization I had been putting off. I just wish this desk had been designed with the idea in mind that it wasn’t supposed to be complete Hell hooking things up.

[muxlow]

I don’t have anything that fancy but I feel your pain. Someday all this stuff will be wireless/cableless.

[HCMarkus]

I don’t have anything that fancy but I feel your pain. Someday all this stuff will be wireless/cableless.

God forbid.

I still prefer wired Ethernet. Wired Speakers. Wired Headphones.

Wireless has its place in live shows, lounges and laptops. In the studio, I want electrons flowing thru physical conductors.

[muxlow]

I don’t have anything that fancy but I feel your pain. Someday all this stuff will be wireless/cableless.

God forbid.

I still prefer wired Ethernet. Wired Speakers. Wired Headphones.

Wireless has its place in live shows, lounges and laptops. In the studio, I want electrons flowing thru physical conductors.

Ha, I feel ya. I’m still a wired headphones/earbuds guy. But if I never had to look at a tangle of guitar and mic cables again, I’d be happy

[bayswater]

All wired here too, including as much non audio stuff as I can manage.

To get around the tangles and rewiring I have everything possible going through a patch bays So if I have to plug a guitar in, I plug it into a labelled jack on the patchbay. Same with all ins and outs on any interface, preamp, mixer, or effect. There’s a sheet of old thin plywood over the back of the rack because I rarely have to go into it.

Part of making this work is to have a big signal path picture on the wall, and patchbays with the all the various “normal” options for interrupting existing connections.

[James Steele]

All wired here too, including as much non audio stuff as I can manage.

To get around the tangles and rewiring I have everything possible going through a patch bays So if I have to plug a guitar in, I plug it into a labelled jack on the patchbay. Same with all ins and outs on any interface, preamp, mixer, or effect. There’s a sheet of old thin plywood over the back of the rack because I rarely have to go into it.

Part of making this work is to have a big signal path picture on the wall, and patchbays with the all the various “normal” options for interrupting existing connections.

I agree totally. And I am using a patchbay, so my complaint really was temporary. It happens whenever you decide to do something major and change things around in a big way, which is what I have been doing recently during my ongoing studio modernization that began with buying my Mac Studio a couple years ago. It's during this reconfiguration when you need to get behind stuff and plug things in that things get difficult. I also made all my own cables and also used shorter length IEC cords.

One thing I ended up doing via trial and error is moving my rack power distro unit to the top rack space and my patchbay to the bottom. This way the power cables run upward and the audio cables run down. Also, as you can also see in the pic, this time I was finally smart and made my cables with enough slack so that the patchbay could be pulled out and set on the desk without the connectors pulling out of the back. Duh!! Why it took so long for me to do this I don't know? Made making connects so much easier. Once things were connected and labeled I just carefully dropped the patch bay back into the rack.

patchbayinstall.jpg (177.16 KiB) Viewed 3929 times

Also, two other recommendations regarding patchbays.

FIRST RECOMMENDATION: SAMSON S-PATCH PLUS
Even though it was functionally fine, I retired my Behringer PX3000 Ultrapatch Pro. It's inexpensive and a great value for the money, but a major annoyance is that the normal/half normal/thru switches are on the top of the unit and inaccessible unless you pull it out of the rack. On top of it, I had to tape down the sliding switches, because putting it back into the rack would often cause the switches to change position.

So, I bought a Samson S-Patch Plus. It costs almost TWICE what the Behringer costs, but to me it's worth every additional penny. It feels much more solid, but what sold me is that the normal/half normal/thru switches are on the front! Huge!

SECOND RECOMMENDATION: TRACE AUDIO PATCHBAY LABEL
See my post here. These aren't cheap, but they're not ridiculous either and I'm definitely getting one made soon as I feel I'm not going to be changing how things are connected to my patchbay for a while. They have templates for most common TRS patchbays and will let you design a custom label that doesn't use too strong an adhesive--it will peel off. You can make your own labels, color code sections, etc. and they will print it and ship it to you and then you stick it to the front of your patchbay. I'm TOTALLY getting one of these!!

P.S. Now all I need is for MOTU to fix the damned Hardware Insert Plugin in DP!!!

[bayswater]

Behringer PX3000 Ultrapatch Pro[/url]. It's inexpensive and a great value for the money, but a major annoyance is that the normal/half normal/thru switches are on the top of the unit and inaccessible unless you pull it out of the rack.

Right. I have an even more incovenient Behringer. You have to take the circuit boards out and rotate them. But I don’t do reconfigs often.

[James Steele]

Behringer PX3000 Ultrapatch Pro[/url]. It's inexpensive and a great value for the money, but a major annoyance is that the normal/half normal/thru switches are on the top of the unit and inaccessible unless you pull it out of the rack.

Right. I have an even more incovenient Behringer. You have to take the circuit boards out and rotate them. But I don’t do reconfigs often.

I sure hope I won't need to be doing this any time soon. This time I enough slack on the patch bay. Probably could have gotten by with using the Behringer patch bay but just liked the *idea* of switches on the front and the Samson appears to be better built.

I also ordered a Hosa PDR-369 XLR patchbay.

hosaxlrpatchbay.jpg (72.5 KiB) Viewed 3863 times

A bit pricey but what I like is that the individual XLR connections are reversible, so you could connect microphones to the back, then patch the microphone output to the input any desired preamps connected to the unit. (I guess I will need XLR-F to XLR-M patch cables in the situation.) The outputs of the mic preamps are connected to my TRS patchbay where I have the flexibility to route through outboard compressors on the way in. It comes tomorrow. Oh boy!

Which makes me think... I might be able to connect the Mic inputs on the front of the 828es to this patch bay, and then put then take the Insert Outs of the 828es to my patch bay and normal it to Analog 1 and 2 in so I'll also have the option of patching outboard compressors into the signal patch of the built in MOTU preamps as well. Hmmmmmmm.... I'm going to have to crack open the 828es manual, but pretty sure that will work.

[Soundmanmark]

Nice Desk, but I have to warn you about the 828es. You do not want ANY equipment in the spaces above and below it. Your best bet would be to put in vents with an exhaust fan at the back of the enclosure:

Bonafides:
I had a 16A and an 828es in the 3 Rack space enclosure on my Omnirax desk (3, 3space bays up top, 2 large bays below). I had a space between the 828es on the bottom and the 16A on top. Recently the 16A decided it was going to boot continuously. I checked the temperature with my hand on both units, and they were pretty warm. I moved the 828es to the middle space and the 16A to a space on my Synth Rack. Lots of room in between. Now when they run, they are only a little above room temperature.

But the damage has been done and the 16A is going back to the mothership for repairs (they wouldn't sell me a power supply, but I'm pretty sure that's the cause.) Takes a lot of money to get a 16A to Waltham in a hurry.

[HCMarkus]

they wouldn't sell me a power supply,

Sorry to hear that... maybe their inventory is drying up. I bought one a while back for my 828ES and am keeping it in my inventory as insurance.

I am guessing the 16A might run hotter than the 828 due to double the analog I/O.

[James Steele]

Nice Desk, but I have to warn you about the 828es. You do not want ANY equipment in the spaces above and below it. Your best bet would be to put in vents with an exhaust fan at the back of the enclosure:

Bonafides:
I had a 16A and an 828es in the 3 Rack space enclosure on my Omnirax desk (3, 3space bays up top, 2 large bays below). I had a space between the 828es on the bottom and the 16A on top. Recently the 16A decided it was going to boot continuously. I checked the temperature with my hand on both units, and they were pretty warm. I moved the 828es to the middle space and the 16A to a space on my Synth Rack. Lots of room in between. Now when they run, they are only a little above room temperature.

But the damage has been done and the 16A is going back to the mothership for repairs (they wouldn't sell me a power supply, but I'm pretty sure that's the cause.) Takes a lot of money to get a 16A to Waltham in a hurry.

I can't afford the luxury of a THREE SPACE 828es. I've been using it this way for years now with no ill effects. The unit directly below it generates no heat and the unit above it generates very little at all. I guess I will choose to continue to live dangerously.

[bayswater]

Does MOTU still sell the mounting plates that give you a half space above and below?

[James Steele]

Does MOTU still sell the mounting plates that give you a half space above and below?

I have no idea, but I flat out don't have the rack space to give my 828es a space above and a space below it. Honestly, if this is necessary for an audio interface than it's a poor design. Admit defeat and put it in a 3U case then.

Currently, directly below my 828es I have my Samson patch bay. Obviously, that generates no heat whatsoever. It's also shallower than the 828es so some of the bottom of the 828es chassis is exposed. Above it is my Audioscape Buss Comp. That is (wait let met get down on the floor and look under my desk...) it's about two inches deeper than the 828es. We know heat rises. I suppose I could relocate the buss comp to the right bay so the 828es could have an empty spot above it. Or then move it so there's a half rack space above and below it.

Honestly... I had been looking at eventually getting a dual rack rolling unit like this:

rack.jpg (213.03 KiB) Viewed 3748 times

I'd place it just to my left where I currently have 14 space rolling slant rack for synths. I'd replace it with this rack and move the synths over to the left side and put outboard in the right and obviously have room for growth and could grudgingly give the 828es three freaking rack spaces to itself! Well maybe I can do that in the next few months and just live dangerously for now I suppose. It hasn't been a problem for me. I'd be curious how many of these units fail if they don't have a free space above and below? You'd assume they'd be failing by the hundreds.